A fire on the Barrenjoey peninsula isn't necessarily a bad thing, its all part of the natural cycles of the aussie bush. Hopefully only sections of the headland burnt and its now a patchwork of burnt and non-burnt areas.

As for bitou bush, it certainly burns and fire is one management option!! It can re-sprout after a fire and seedlings appear in newly burnt areas. As for bitou bush control it means we switch from cut and paint the mature trees, to plucking out any seedlings and thwarting any regrowth, giving the natives a chance to take the upper hand.

We were camped at the Basin, on the weekend, looking over to Barrenjoey. The flames started on the western side of the lighthouse and spread pretty quickly in an eastern direction and down the hill. Wind was howling from the west.

The helicopters concentrated their water bombs on the lighthouse during the day. Later in the afternoon they started to try and put out the flames on the western perimeter of the the fires which spread down, in a line, to the water on the northern and southern side of the headland. The whole eastern side was cremated leaving the western side untouched. It looked like they had put it out at the end of the day.

That night, with no helicopters to control it, the fire kicked up again. You could see the lighthouse beam through the smoke. Without the helicopters water bombing the old timber cottages up the hill the firies must have run water up there in their four wheel drives to protect the place. By Sunday morning the flames had moved west of the lighthouse and adjacent buildings so the threat to them had passed. The wind swung around to the Nor east and pushed the flames over to the southwest crag.

We went over to have a look in the tinnie. This is our mode of transport to get to the crag. Normally I would tie up to a rock below the crag, the water is always deep here and the rock has a chicken neck to tie to. We then clamber over waist deep asparagas fern to get up to the track. I had the satisfaction of watching the weed burn in this location when we took a closer look.

Those little cottages down by the water survived along with all the plants around them. The RFS were there in numbers to protect them.

Apart from the building, their immediate surroundings and a few patches at the bottom fringe of the headland everything else was blackened.

We struck camp and are moving to the Bluies. Hopefully we'll find the crags there more approachable.

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
CLOSED AREAS
Closure of Barrenjoey headland due to recent Wildfire - Barrenjoey Lighthouse
Barrenjoey Headland is currently closed. The NPWS aims to have the area open to the public on Friday the 4th Oct. Lighthouse tours will be conducted on Sunday 6th October. The recent fire that swept through the area has created an extremely sensitive environment and park visitors are advised to adhere to the walking tracks.

>Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park>CLOSED AREAS >Closure of Barrenjoey headland due to recent Wildfire - Barrenjoey Lighthouse>Barrenjoey Headland is currently closed. The NPWS aims to have the area>open to the public on Friday the 4th Oct. Lighthouse tours will be conducted>on Sunday 6th October. The recent fire that swept through the area has>created an extremely sensitive environment and park visitors are advised>to adhere to the walking tracks.
Wow, only a one week shutdown after the fire. I can't help but compare it to the Grampians where the Vic Range is still pretty much locked up 6 months after the fire. And then there was the lockout after the floods 2 years before and then the fires of 2006.
While I'm sympathetic to the issues faced by the Parks Service people it's really frustrating that the default position in Vic is a long lockout after any unusual natural event.

On 2/10/2013 kieranl wrote:>On 2/10/2013 martym wrote:>>>Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park>>CLOSED AREAS >>The recent fire that swept through the area has created an extremely sensitive environment and park visitors are advised to adhere to the walking tracks.

>Wow, only a one week shutdown after the fire. I can't help but compare>it to the Grampians where the Vic Range is still pretty much locked up>6 months after the fire. And then there was the lockout after the floods>2 years before and then the fires of 2006.>While I'm sympathetic to the issues faced by the Parks Service people>it's really frustrating that the default position in Vic is a long lockout>after any unusual natural event.

The situation is a bit different not only politically, but also in that the weekend concerned is a public holiday in NSW; the Park concerned is on the doorstep (suburb) of Australia's biggest city and has a very high tourism rate; and the track up to the lighthouse is a locked 4wd track over very rocky ground, with the approach to it along a beach...
Oh, and Superstu doesn't mind if any bitou bush gets trampled as long as you pull it out afterwards!
;-)

On 2/10/2013 ajfclark wrote:>I would not call a fire an unusual event...
Strictly, neither would I. But they're less predictable than the annual "productivity dividend" deducted from Parks budgets. (How do you increase productivity by cutting funds to parks that don't have enough money to do their existing work?)

On 2/10/2013 kieranl wrote:>(How do you increase productivity by cutting funds to parks that don't have enough money to>do their existing work?)

By burning down infrastructure so it doesn't need to be maintained, and closing parks to general public so they don't have to be managed?
Don't worry, climbers are only a pesky minority and won't change the status quo.

On 2/10/2013 kieranl wrote:>Wow, only a one week shutdown after the fire. I can't help but compare>it to the Grampians where the Vic Range is still pretty much locked up>6 months after the fire. And then there was the lockout after the floods>2 years before and then the fires of 2006.